The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c22.20.5

v3.c22.20.5

but the prince's mother and a few who favoured his cause were in the camp and secretly warned him that if he obeyed the order he would certainly be imprisoned by his father. Nizām Khān temporised and the nobles, who were almost unanimous in opposing his succession, some supporting Bārbak Shāh of Jaunpur, and others A'zam-i-Humāyūn, son of Khvāja Bāyazīd, Bahlūl's eldest son, urged Bahlūl to assert his authority, and an order was sent to Nizām Khān, warning him that if he did not immediately obey the summons his father would march to Delhi and punish him. Nizām Khān pitched his camp beyond the walls and announced that he was about to set out, but needed a few days in which to prepare for the journey. Meanwhile Bahlūl suddenly died, in the second week of July, 1489. Zībā, the goldsmith's daughter, boldly confronted the Lodī nobles with an assertion of her son's claim to the throne, and was abused to her face by 'Īsā Khān, Bahlūl's first cousin, who brusquely told her that the son of a goldsmith's daughter was not the man to fill a throne. His discourtesy injured his cause by exciting sympathy for the widow, and Khān Khānān Qarmalī rebuked him. 'Īsā Khān angrily replied that a servant had no right to interfere in the family affairs of the Lodīs, and the Khān Khānān retorted that if he was a servant he was the servant of Sikandar Shāh, the title by which Nizām Khān was already known to his adherents, and of none other.